Chris McGuigan
Chris McGuigan is Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Welsh School of Pharmacy, Cardiff University. He has held this post for 15 years. Previously he was at the University of Southampton and UCL prior to that. He has >25 years experience in drug discovery and development, and has worked closely with both large pharmaceutical industry and small biotech companies. He was co-recipient of the EU Descartes Prize in 2000, the GSK International Achievement Award in 2004, and the RSC Medicinal Chemistry Award in 2006. He has >150 papers and >30 patents to date.
His work is directed at drug discovery and development, particularly for viruses and cancer. One of his discoveries from 10 years ago, Cf1743, is a highly potent inhibitor of the VZVm, chickenpox - shingles virus. As 'FV100' is has been licensed by US company Inhibitex and is currently in phase 2 clinical trials for shingles in elderly patients across the USA. Other agents include a new potential treatment for pancreatic cancer licensed by Nucana Biomed, and an agent for osteoarthritis licensed by Bioiberica.